GB207782A - Improvements in or relating to record-card-controlled statistical machines - Google Patents

Abstract

207,782. British Tabulating Machine Co., Ltd., (Assignees of Carroll, F. M.). Dec. 2, 1922, [Convention date]. Statistical machines axe adapted for sorting and tabulating simultaneously or for sorting only and comprise means for feeding the cards on to a horizontally rotating drum to which the cards are clipped automatically, the cards while on the drum being read by sorting and tabulating brushes which control mechanism for releasing the cards into their appropriate radially arranged sorting compartments and for tabulating the items on the cards. A card-carrying drum 3 is fixed to a shaft 5, Fig. 5, supported in the frame of the machine and rotating freely within a fixed sleeve 13 integral with a drum 15. Splined to this shaft 5 is a wheel 17 geared fo the motor 26. Rotatably mounted in the periphery of the drum 3 are shafts 28 carrying clips 27, Fig. 5, which hold the cards 29 against the surface of the drum 3. the shafts 28 also passing through the gear 17 to a yoke 31 freely rotating on the fixed sleeve 13. Each shaft 28 carries a sleeve 34 which can slide but not rotate on it and rotating on this sleeve is a roller 35. The sleeve 34 is held in adjusted position by a spring-pressed plate 39 and it carries a projection 40 which co-operates with lugs 41 arranged helically on the fixed drum 15 and corresponding in position to the various cardpockets 42, Fig. 3. An inclined guide member 44 pivoted at 45 and curled to conform to the path of the rollers 35, carries the armature 47 of a magnet 48 in the sorting brush circuit. As the drum 3 rotates each roller 35 will ride up the incline 44, raising the part 40 with it and when the sorting brush makes contact through a hole in the card the magnet 48 is energized, the member 44 retracted against the action of its spring 46 and the projection 40 is left at a height in line with that lug 41 corresponding to the hole in the card so that subsequently the lug 41 engages the projection 40, rotates the sleeve 34 and therefore opens the clip 27 releasing the card at the entrance to its appropriate pocket 42. Each pocket comprises parallel walls 49, 50 and has a backpiece 51 carried by an arm 52 and guide rollers 53, a cord 54 being fixed to the wall 49 and to a spring drum 56 so that the part 51 is pressed towards the drum 3. A card clipped to the drum 3 is also pressed to it by a roller 62 which feeds it forward after the clip 27 is opened, the card then straightening itself and being caught by a guide 63 and carried to rollers 57, 58, driven from the wheel 17, which feed the card into the pocket, this action being assisted by a reciprocating hook 64 on the pocket wall. Cards are fed to the drum 3 by alternately reciprocating claw 92 and picker 99 from a supply pocket 70, the side walls of which are endless belts 71, Fig. 2, one of which belts is mounted on an adjustable frame so that it may be moved slightly towards or away from the other belt. A spring-expanding back plate 82 also assists the feed. Each clip in turn is opened to receive the card by its projection 40 being tripped by a lug 103, which releases the clip in time for it to close over the edge of the card. After the projections 40 have been raised as above-described by the member 44, they are depressed to normal position by an inclined member 104, Fig. 3, co-operating with the rollers 35. The sorting brush 106 is carried in a holder 108, Fig. 8, mounted on a bar 109 having notches 110 engageable by a pin carried in the holder so that the brush may be adjusted up and down the bar for any particular column. This bar is rotatably mounted on the table 1 and has fixed to it a lever 114 which rides over cam-surfaces on the drum 3 adjacent the clips so that at the clips the bar 109 is rotated against the action of its spring 113 and the brush 106 is swung out from the drum. The tabulating brushes 107, Fig. 10, electrically insulated from one another, are similarly mounted on a bar 116 also having the above means for lifting the brushes at the clips. A card lever 124, Figs. 8 and 10, is freely mounted on the bar 109 and has a bifurcated end 123 reaching into circumferential grooves 122 in the drum 3 so that when a card is passing it lifts the end 123 out of the grooves and the lever 124 is thus rotated to close the contacts 128. The wiring diagram, Fig. 10, shows a single counter 129 operated as in Specification 109,356 and the starting circuit and two holding circuits for the motor 26 are also as in 199,356: that is, the motor is started by depressing the key 136, this key being then shunted (1) by the contacts 150 which are closed when the magnet 149 is energized by the closing of the card lever contacts 128 and (2) by the cam contacts 152. The sorting brush circuit is as follows :-from the positive side of the line; line 141, contacts 155, point 156, line 157, contacts 158, line 159, drum 3, brush 106, line 161, magnet 48 controlling the member 44, Fig. 3, and lines 162, 140 to the negative side of the line. The tabulating circuit is the same as far as drum 3, and thence goes to brushes 107, lines 164, 166, counter 129 and lines 170, 171, 140 to negative side of line. The tabulating mechanism may be cut out so that only sorting takes place by a lever 176, Fig. 2, which declutches the tabulator drive and opens the switch 177, Fig. 10.